harissa-roasted chicken with chickpeas and red onion
Oh, chicken! You are so maligned sometimes. You’re the thing people probably order the least in nicer restaurants. And you’re easily relegated to boring and blasé. Sometimes you are cooked into dry oblivion, upon which you, at best, taste like pressed wood chips. To make matters worse, you’re far too humble to ever speak up for yourself. Instead, you wait. You wait for a cook to realize your true potential, and elevate you to your well-earned exalted position. Just as a concept, chicken, you are bland. Commonplace, even. But there are so many way to prepare you, that you possess the versaility other meats simply to not. You can be dressed up, or down, depending on the occasion. Different version of you have legions of loyal followers. Roast chicken. Chicken braised in Riesling. Chicken braised in milk. You can take on so many roles that it is, indeed, unfair to call you boring. Chicken, you are the Meryl Streep of food! There’s no one more versatile than you! [And thus, I end my ode.]
Despite chicken’s apparent versatility, writing excitedly about it, does present a bit of a problem. I think what makes or breaks a chicken dish, in particular, is how you make it. I know that this rule applies to just about everything, but I like think of chicken as the true, great, blank canvas. There’s an endless range of possibilities, but chicken generally needs a bit of direction, be is just a bit of salt and pepper, and roasting; or a more elaborate cooking process. And with a few great ingedients and some gentle prodding, what you can wind up with is nothing short of a miracle.
I’ve been on a harissa kick lately, so much so, that I am thinking of just biting the bullet and making my own. Luisa’s recipe has been on my mind for awhile now, but as per usual, I am slow to get things done. Work, you consume me so! I made this a few weeks ago for a very special dinner. I’ll leave it at that, but suffice to say, I was trying to impress. I was intrigued by the marriage of yogurt, spices and harissa as a marinade for the chicken – I knew, in an instant, this would be fragrant, flavorful, intense. I wanted a chicken dish that wasn’t delicate with its notes; I wanted a bold, daring dish that would hold its own against the carrot salad. And the flavors worked beautifully. The yogurt added a lovely tang that took the heat of harissa and deepened its structure, all the while softening its heat just a bit. I wanted a slightly earthy aftertaste, so I mixed some cumin into my marinade – a decision I was particularly happy about once we tasted the final product. And because there were chickpeas in the salad, I opted to skip them this time around (fearing the mighty chickpea overload), but added some extra onions to roast and flavor the chicken.
I’m always on a lookout for a chicken recipe that will be a real stand-out in a crowd of just-so recipes. I’ve gotten quite lucky with the Riesling one, and this apricot-Sriracha one (among a few), and this will take a place alongside my keeper recipes. If you think that making chicken is a snooze-fest, I implore you not to give the bird a chance – it will play any role you want and will transform itself so much so that you might just exclaim, “This is chicken?!?” and never look back. Except, maybe, to get second helpings.
Harissa-Roasted Chicken with Chickpeas and Red Onion
Adapted from Food & Wine
Ingredients:
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp harissa
1/2 cup plain yogurt (Greek works well too!)
1-2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cumin
4 whole chicken legs (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1 can of chickpeas (rinsed and drained) – didn’t use in the recipe
1 large red onion, cut into 8 wedges
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Preparation:
Combine the harissa with the yogurt, lemon juice and cumin in a small bowl and set aside. Wash and pat dry your chicken, removing excess water. You don’t have to get it super dry, as you will be submerging your chicken in a marinade shortly. In a large resealable plastic bag, toss your chicken leg quarters with the harissa marinade, letting the excess air out, so the marinade coats the chicken as much as possible. Let the chicken bag stand for 1 hour at room temperature.It’s okay, let us stand, don’t worry.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°F and position a rack in the top third.
In a 9-by-13-inch roasting pan, drizzle the red onion and the chickpeas with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast both in the oven for 15 minutes, until the onion begins to brown and wilt.
Set the chicken the legs skin side up on top of the chickpeas and season with salt and pepper. Roast the chicken for 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the skin has browned. Transfer the chicken to plates and serve with chickpeas and onions on the side.
Serves 4 (or 2 if you are hungry!)
Christine
Oh if only it weren’t 90+ degrees every day here… Harissa! Chickpeas! sign me up. I hear Thursday is supposed to be cooler. Thank goodness.
Jennifer Poole
Just stumbled on your lovely blog. Beautiful pictures, excellent writing and mouth-watering recipes. Sold!!
A Little Yumminess
I have all the ingredients for this recipe…am printing it and will make this next week! Thanks!
Olga @MangoTomato
looks gorgeous!!!
Pelay
This looks amazing, I can’t wait to make it. But…I’m new to Harissa and in trying to find it I’ve found both Harissa paste and sauce. Which do I use?
Radish
Pelay – great question. I’ve never seen the “sauce” version of it, but mine comes in a jar and looks like a thickish paste. I think that’s your best bet. I’m excited you’re trying harissa – you’ll totally fall in love with it!
Dana
Your chicken looks so good! Chicken seems to be at it’s versatile best prepared simply with a couple of other good ingredients. Letting it do what it does mouth wateringly best doesn’t need to take a lot of effort.
vicki
Well, darn, I know if I turn my apartment oven up to 425 the smoke alarm goes off. And my stove is clean. Must talk to landlord about this.
Radish
Vicki – you can cook it on lower temperatures, but cook it for longer to make sure it’s fully cooked through.
Sara
I made this dish tonight. Although I’m not a good judge of my own cooking, I think it turned out pretty well. I think next time I make it, I’ll add a dash of orange blossom water to get the full Tunisian experience.
The Rowdy Chowgirl
Now I’m hoping for a rainy weekend because this would be just perfect on a drizzly Sunday.
Exploded Daniel
Somehow I worry if I made this I would use far more harissa. No matter how much I buy I end up using it all up in just a few dishes.
nightship538
I made it exactly as in the recipe– the garbanzo beans and onion added a depth and balance to the creamy heat of the yogurt/harissa mixture. I also was concerned about the high cooking temperature, but the chicken came out absolutely perfect, moist and juicy inside and crispy outside. This is defintely a keeper!!
Sam
I have a question. was looking for harissa recipe to try out this weekend. this looks divine but I was wondering about one thing. I have harissa still in powder form rather than as a paste (found it at an amazing spice place). any suggestions for substituting this for paste? thanks!
Nina
I absolutely love your recipes – you are my best source ever! and I hate to rain on teh parade but just thought that may be I should share that one should be cautious with this harissa. I tried this recipy last Saturday and ended in the emergency room because have developed a terrible allergy (leaning towards anaphylaxis reaction…) I”m not exactly prone to allergies (just have it for one type of antibiotics), so I thought that may be this experience could help someone else ,too…(it was a high quality harissa – I bought it in Fairway a month ago, and just opened on Saturday.)
Radish
Nina – thank you for your helpful comment and I’m so sorry that this happened to you. What might have caused it do you know? Is it a pepper allergy? I hope you are feeling better – so sorry for the ER visit!
Nina
Olga — that’s totally fine, it’s nobody’s fault, and not yours for sure! They are not exactly sure which exact ingredient caused the allergy. I just wanted to have a fair warnings for harissa newbies – that they should be cautious :-) That’s it. Please keep your great recipes coming!
Radish
Nina – glad you’re okay and again, thank you for the heads up to folks! And thank you so much for reading and your feedback!
Stephen
Wow- I tried this last night and loved it. I too got my Harissa from Fairway, it came in a plastic squeeze bottle that was very convenient. I used the chickpeas and the onions and poured the marinade over the chicken before I put it in the oven. This one is a keeper!
Tammy
Is there anything non-dairy that can be substituted for the yogurt so that I could make it for Kosher friends? Thank you.
olga
Tammy – it’s hard to substitute the yogurt (as it moisturizes the chicken) but perhaps using some olive oil to create a marinade, would work well? Let me know if this works well for you!
Michael
@Tammy: Coconut yogurt — which is dairy-free cultured coconut milk — would probably do the trick nicely.